Piaget's stages of intellectual development Flashcards
stages on intellectual development definition
Piaget identified four stages if intellectual development. each stage is characterised by a different level of reasoning ability. although the exact stages vary from child to child, the key point is that all children develop through the same sequences of stages
object permanence definition
ability to realise that an object still exists when it passes out of the visual field. Piaget believed that this ability appears at around 8 months of age. before this children lose interest in an object when they cant see it and presumably are no longer aware of its existence
conservation definition
ability to realise that quantity remains the same even when the appearance of an object or group of objects has changed such as when liquid of the same volume is poured between vessels of different shapes
egocentrism definition
child’s tendency to only be able to see the world form their own point of view. this applies to both physical objects (demonstrated by 3 mountains task) and arguments in which child can only see their own perspective
class inclusion definition
advanced classification skill in which we recognise that class of objects have subsets and are themselves of larger classes. pre-operational children usually struggle to place things in more than one class
what are the 4 stages of intellectual development
-sensorimotor stage
-pre-operational stage
-stage of concrete operations
-stage of formal operations
what is the age of the sensorimotor stage
0-2 years
what is the age of the pre-operational stage
2-7
what is the age of the concrete operations stage
7-11
what is the age of the formal operations stage
11+
sensorimotor stage - what did Piaget suggest the babys early focus is
physical sensations and developing some basic physical co-ordination
sensorimotor stage - how did Piaget suggest babies learn
trial and error that they can deliberate move their body in particular ways, and eventually that they can move other objects. the baby also develops an understanding in the first 2 years that other people are separate objects and acquire some basic language
sensorimotor stage - when does baby become capable of object permanence
8 months
sensorimotor stage - what is object permanence
understanding that objects still exists when they are out of sight
sensorimotor stage - how did Piaget discover object permanence
observed babies looking at objects and watched as the objects were removed from sight. he noted that before 8 months the babies immediately switched attention form object but after 8 months they would continue to look for it. this cause Piaget to believe that it was at this age babies understood objects continued to exists when removed from view
pre-operational stage - 3 parts
-conservation
-egocentrism
-class inclusion
pre-operational stage - what id babies reasoning ability at this age
can use language but lack adult reasoning ability so display some characteristic errors in reasoning
pre-operational stage - what is conservation
basic mathematical understanding that quantity remains constant even when the appearance of the object changes
pre-operational stage - Piaget number conservation
-placed 2 rows of 8 identical counters side by side
-found even young children could tell that there was the same number of counters in each row
-when one row had counters pushed together they the pre-operational children struggled to conserve and said there were less counters in that row
pre-operational stage - Piaget liquid conservation
found when two identical containers were placed side by side with contents at the same height children said they had the same volume of liquid
-when some liquid was moved to a taller, thinner vessel the younger children said there was more liquid in the taller vessel
pre-operational stage - egocentrism
see world from own point of view
pre-operational stage - Piaget and Inhelder 3 mountain task for demonstrating egocentrism
-children shown 3 mountains each with different features of a cross, a house or snow
- a doll was placed at side of the model so that it faced the scene at a different angle from the child
-the child was asked to identify what the doll could “see” form a range of pictures
-pre-operational children struggled and often chose the picture that matched their own point of view
pre-operational stage - class inclusion
children begin to understand that things fall into categories so most pre-operational children can classify that pugs are dogs
pre-operational stage - Piaget and Inhelder class inclusion study
-children under 7 struggle with advanced skill of class inclusion ( that classes have subsets)
-showed 7-8 year olds pictures of 5 dogs and 2 cats and asked are there more dogs or animals
-children responded that there are more dogs
-this was interpreted that younger children cannot simultaneously see a dog as member of dog class and animal class
stage of concrete operations
operations applied to physical objects in the child’s presence
stage of concrete operations - child’s reasoning abilities
better externally-verifiable reasoning abilities (Piaget called operations) but are strictly concrete
stage of concrete operations - Childs ability for abstract ideas
struggle to reason about abstract ideas and imagine objects or situations they cannot see. this appears in formal operations
stage of formal operations
children become capable of formal reasoning so can focus on form of argument and not focus on content
stage of formal operations - how can formal reasoning be tested
pendulum task and mens of syllogisms such as Smith et al all cats have 2 heads, how many heads does my yellow cat Charlie have. they could say 2 heads
stage of formal operations - what did younger children do
became distracted by content and answered to task that cats did not have 2 heads
stage of formal operations - what did children then become capable of when formal operations were achieved
Piaget believed once children could reason formally they are capable of scientific reasoning and become able to appreciate abstract ideas
limitation of Piaget’s theory of intellectual development - conservation research
-conclusions about conservation flawed as research is flawed
-children taking part in Piaget’s conservation studies have been influence’s by seeing the experimenter change the appearance of the counters or liquid. why would the researcher change the appearance and then ask them if it was the same. McGarrigle and Donaldson set up a study in which the counters appeared to be moved by accident. in one condition they replicated the standard Piaget task with 4-6 year olds and like Piaget they found that most children answered incorrectly. However, in another condition a ‘naughty teddy’ appeared and knocked the couters closer together and now 72% correctly sid there were the same number of counters as before –> means children aged 4-6 could conserver, as long as they were not put off by the what they were questioned. this in turn suggests that Piaget was wrong about the age which conservation appears
limitation of Piaget’s theory of intellectual development - class inclusion research
-findings on class inclusion is contradicted by newer research
-Siegler and Svetina showed that children were in fact capable of understanding class inclusion. Siegler and Svetina gave 100 5-year old from Slovenia 10 class inclusion tasks, receiving an explanation of the task after each session hey received feedback that there must be more animals than dogs because there were 9 animals and only 6 dogs. a different group received feedback that there must be more animals than dogs because dogs were a subset of animals. the scores across the sessions improved more for the latter group, suggesting the children had acquired a real understanding of class inclusion –> means children under 7 can in fact understand class inclusion - contradictory to what Piaget believed. so Piaget underestimated what younger children could do
limitation of Piaget’s theory of intellectual development - egocentrism research
-lack of support for egocentrism
-Hughes tested the ability of children to see a situation form two people’s viewpoints using a model with two intersecting walls and three dolls, a boy and a two police officers (similar to 3 mountains task). once familiarised with the task the children as young as 3.5 were able to position the doll where one police officer could not see him 90% of the time, and 4 year olds could do this 90% of time when there were 2 police officers to hide from –> means that when tested with scenario that makes more sense, children are able to decentree and imagine other perspectives much earlier than Piaget proposed. this again suggests that Piaget underestimated the abilities of younger children and that his stages are incorrect
strength of Piaget’s theory of intellectual development - counterpoint to egocentrism research
-one issue with the limitation is that they are all criticisms of the age et which particular cognitive stage is reached, not a criticism of the characteristics of the stage itself. for example hughes’ point of view is that children were able to decentre at a younger age than Piaget had claimed. However, oit is Hughes’ research that the ability improves with age –> therefore, the core principles of Piaget’s stages remain unchallenged but the methods he used meany the timing of ist stages was wrong
evaluation of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development - Domain-general and domain-specific
-believed that intellectual development is a single process and that all aspects of cognition develop together. so, language, reasoning and egocentrism all develop pretty much in tandem. by-and-large, for most children, this is indeed the case- if it were not then we could not have a school system that teaches a common curriculum to children according to age
-however, research with autistic children suggests that actually these abilities may develop separately. some autistic children also experience co-occurring learning disabilities, and they often face challenges with reasoning, language and egocentrism. but in other autistic children who do not have learning disabilities, these skills develop as they do in non-autistic children
